The present invention relates to a golf swing training system that attempts to delay the release of the golf club on the downswing to maximize club head velocity at golf ball impact to increase ball exit velocity from the club head at impact.
The distance and trajectory of a golf ball is controlled by a variety of factors several of which are not dealt with in the present invention and several are. One is the extension of the golf swing arc on the backswing predominantly influenced by the golfer keeping his hands during the backswing as far as possible away from his body. Another is the setting of his wrists during the backswing and the downswing. The timing of the cocking and uncocking of the wrists during the backswing and the downswing not only affects club head speed at impact, but also ball launch angle and ball spin rate and a variety of other flight factors that are not relevant to this discussion.
There is an increasing contemporary swing teaching influence to set the wrists earlier in the backswing when the straight lead arm is parallel to the ground in the backswing, the wrists should in this method be fully cocked with the club shaft 90 degrees to the lead arm pointing toward sky. But in any event, the wrists should be fully set or cocked at least at a club shaft 90 degree angle to the leading arm somewhere in the backswing or in some cases during the downswing.
Some of the great golfers actually cock or increase the cocking of their wrists during the downswing. By increasing the cocking angle either before or during the downswing and delaying the release of the club shaft, the time period during release decreases and this is what leads to faster club head speeds at impact.
Both Jack Nicklaus and Sergio Garcia, both great swingers of the driver, decrease the angle between the driver shaft and the leading arm during the downswing. What this does is increase the arc length through which the club head must travel to square at impact and at the same time reduces the time for the club head to travel through that longer arc—both influences increasing the velocity of the club head at impact.
The present invention does not deal with increasing wrist cocking during the downswing, or even setting or cocking the wrists properly during the backswing, both of which are important to correct golf swing mechanics.
The present invention encourages the late release of the club head during the downswing. The later the release of the club head the shorter the time in the total downswing cycle the golfer has to square the club head at impact which mandates greater club head speed between release initiation and impact.
There have been attempts in the past to control the release of the club head during the downswing. John Billing, in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,103, explains a strapping system on the golfer's leading arm that attempts to control release by the bending movement of the leading arm. But club head release is not significantly controlled by the bending movement in the leading arm, because the leading arm most productively remains straight during the downswing.
The late club head release has been approached by many inventors including Mike Snyder in his U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,616. Most of these late club head release devices include a string attached to the club head at one end and attached at some point to the golfer's body at the other end; such as one of his arms, or his back, or his foot. In Mr. Snyder's case, he attaches one end of the string to the golf shaft and the other end of the string to the golfer's rear forearm as seen in FIG. 6C to FIG. 6G of the patent.
The technical problem in the Snyder patent is the methodology for releasing the string and permitting the golfer to release the golf club to the ball.
In Snyder, the release is triggered by the extension of the trailing arm. What does that mean? It means, if the golfer casts the club at the top of the downswing, the string 46 will release permitting the golfer to prematurely release his wrist, losing club head velocity at impact.
Thus, the problem with prior delayed club head release devices is the myopic focus on the golfer's wrists, when in reality the trailing arm of the golfer is what initiates the release of the club head, whether it be early, prematurely or correctly late.
So it is in part the primary object of the present invention to ameliorate the problems noted above in swing training devices that attempt to delay the release of the club head during the downswing.